Comment by mrgordon

They have around 12,000 employees according to Wikipedia (and a few other sources show a similar figure). If we figure the average employee is 250,000/year in liabilities on the balance sheet (salary + benefits + options/RSUs) then thats $3 billion a year in employee expenses. I don't think $250k is too unrealistic considering the massive capital gains many employees must have on paper as well as the high level of talent Uber has lured away from competitors. They had the creator of Google Maps, the Otto acquisition (and the subsequent legal costs if we want to factor those in), and a whole lot of other experts around mapping / autonomous vehicles.